The Sister Who Came in From the Cold
by LisaDouglas
Summary: Emily's sister Amy comes to town and starts dating Howard. Meanwhile, Ellen returns from Cleveland unexpectedly after she and Howard have broken up. Takes place in season 5.


Chapter One- A Guest Would Explain It

"Hi honey." Bob said, coming in the front door and removing his jacket.

It had been a long day and he was starving and tired. More than anything, he wanted to have a quiet relaxing evening that would lead into an even more quiet and relaxing weekend. Bob yawned and focused on hanging up his jacket. In his preoccupied state, he neglected to really notice the state of the apartment.

"What in the…" He said to himself as he looked around.

The state of his home immediately sparked his concern. Everything was in disarray; it looked nothing like when he'd left that morning. All the furniture was disheveled and his wife was nowhere to be found.

"E-Emily?" He asked cautiously.

"Hi honey!" She greeted sweetly, hurrying out of the den to say hello.

She was dressed in jeans and a light denim shirt that she always wore while she was cleaning. Bob looked around once again; realizing that their home had not been ransacked, but that she was indeed in a cleaning frenzy…the kind she only bothered with if something important were happening like a holiday, or…

"E-Emily what's…" He began.

"My sister's coming to visit!" That explained it. A guest.

"Your sister?" He questioned carefully as he went to go make himself a drink. She followed him in that direction but continued onto the kitchen. "W-which sister?"

Bob didn't really want either of his sisters-in-law to visit. He liked Emily's older sister Annie, but Annie had three little kids and he wasn't sure he really wanted them visiting. Then there was Amy, Emily's eccentric younger sister. Amy did what she wanted in life, had no husband, no real job, no stability, no real responsibilities. She wasn't rich, but jet-setted around the world, and was kind of a character in his opinion…Actually he couldn't stand her.

Amy was loud and brash like her father, Junior Harrison; only she displayed almost none of the consideration and common decency that Junior often possessed. She was spoiled, vein and always had to make fun of him for how straight-laced and normal he was. In short; Amy did everything she could to make him a walking joke when she was around. Bob was a very secure person, it didn't make him feel different about himself; it just made him angry.

"Hi guys." Howard greeted excitedly as he walked in the front door. "I'm famished; when's dinner?!" He didn't hesitate to ask; it was, after all, why he was there.

"Howard I thought you were going to Paris this morning." Bob asked.

"So did I! But the whole thing got canceled, so I'm here all weekend…" Howard paused. "Emily…are we having lemon pie for desert?" He inquired hopefully. Bob had wondered the same thing as soon as he'd walked in the apartment, as the place reeked of lemons.

"No Howard." Emily laughed. "It's just lemon Pledge." She said, indicating the can she was holding.

"Oh that's right you're cleaning…that's gotta mean something important's happening."

"How'd you know? My sister's coming to visit?!"

"Emily he knew because you clean obsessively when there's a guest or a holiday, or a birthday…and by the way you were about to tell me which sister of yours is going to be staying in my den for two weeks or whatever its going to…."

"Bob it'll only be a few days, and it's just Amy."

"What's wrong with Amy?" Howard asked when he saw Bob roll his eyes.

"Yeah…what's wrong with her?" Emily asked in defense of her little sister.

"E-Emily she…" She wanted to say 'She's a jerk,' but didn't want to start a fight. "Emily, she always has to tell me I'm boring."

"Well you are Bob." Emily teased him as the phone began to ring. Bob went to answer it.

"Hey Emily can I meet her?" Howard asked, sitting down at the dining room table.

He'd heard a little about Amy over the years, and the idea of meeting Emily's thrill-seeking younger sister excited him. He liked girls like that and besides; she sounded just like the opposite of the girl he was trying to get over: Ellen Hartley.

"Don't worry Howard." Emily smiled. "I already set her up with you." She'd also thought this would be just the thing to get Howard over his bad break up with Ellen.

"Y-your coming here…t-tomorrow…" Bob asked, both Howard and Emily noted how surprised he seemed to be. This concerned Emily and she raised an eyebrow as she exchanged glances with Howard. "T-that's great!" Bob laughed nervously. "Yeah-yeah that's right I'll see you then…ok, I'll have Carol come and pick you up. Okay. Okay m-me too. Bye."

"Who was that?" Emily asked.

"H-Howard, Emily…Ellen's coming back to Chicago. Tomorrow."

"Ellen?!" Howard asked nervously.

"Ellen." Bob confirmed matter of factly.

…..

"It just…it ended so badly." A distraught Howard recalled of his relationship with Ellen. "She broke my heart."

"Oh sweetie we know." Emily soothed, reaching across the table and pouring her friend another glass of wine.

"Howard, I'm sorry." Bob felt horrible about what his sister had done to his friend.

"I just don't know if I can see her again, if…"

"I think you should." Bob insisted.

"What?!" Even Emily was confused by her husband's suggestion.

"Yeah, seeing her again will give you the chance to confront her…I'm not saying you'll feel better overnight but, the sooner you can confront this…the sooner you can get over it."

"Get over it!" Howard was appalled. "I'm never going to get over it!"

"Yes you are." Bob sighed.

"No I'm not!" Howard was fed up and stood up from his place at the table. "What if Emily left you…would you just get over it like that? No! You'd never really get over it, would you Bob?" He asked.

"N-no I guess not…but Howard, Ellen was your fiancé…and Emily have been married seven years its not the…."

"Yes it is! I can't tell you how much I loved her, what does seven years of your marriage have to do with it?! I still love her!" Howard threw down his napkin and walked out the door.

"Well Bob, that went great." Emily said once Howard had left.

"Emily I…"

Howard then came back in, and approached the table again.

"Just because I love her, and I'm mad at you doesn't mean I'm not still hungry!" He confessed, picking up his plate again and then taking half the bread in the basket at the center of the table before making his way toward the door again. Howard stuffed a piece of bread in his mouth, giving him a free hand to slam the door with.

"I thought he'd get over this sooner." Bob contemplated.

"Honey I don't think he's going to get over it…he's right, he's head over heals."

"This is worse than when Cliff's wife of twenty years left him Emily!"

"Of course it is, he was obsessed with her, Bob I'm worried about him. I think maybe he shouldn't see her."

"Well, he has to, she's going to be staying here tomorrow night."

"No Amy's staying here tomorrow night."

"No Ellen's…oh no."

It wasn't just that they only really had the room for one guest. It was that their younger sisters didn't get along at all: they were about the same age and had a huge personality conflict with one another. Ellen found Amy selfish, flashy and rude (another way to describe her would be thrill-seeking, in fact, she was just a wild party girl). Meanwhile Amy thought Ellen was stuffy and conservative…like Bob.

"Maybe we should ask Ellen to stay somewhere else." Emily suggested.

"Hey your sister gets to stay…"

"I don't mean because of Amy, I mean because of Howard…wait a minute." Emily smiled.

"Emily what…what's that look on your face?" He was apprehensive.

In actuality, Emily noted that their younger sisters didn't' like each other because, as different as they were, they were similar too: Amy and Ellen were selfish and stubborn in all the same ways. Emily found it kind of funny that they hated the selfish quality in each other and failed to recognize it in themselves.

"Bob, let's have them both stay." She said.

"Both of them?! Emily have you lost it, they hate each other…and we have a couch and one pull out bed."

"Well they are the ones who invited themselves to stay with us." Emily pointed out. "They're adults….well Ellen is…and either way, they should have to suffer with the consequences of being uninvited guests, don't you think?"

"That's perfect." He agreed, beginning to smile. He didn't like uninvited guests even when one of them was Ellen.

In reality, Emily saw even more perfection in this plan. It had made the matchmaker within her kick in again. She didn't understand what it was in Ellen Hartley that made her run from commitment, especially since she knew for sure that she really did love Howard. Whatever it was, this was the weekend she was going to take full advantage of it and teach Ellen a lesson for breaking Howard's heart. Amy was the perfect pawn. Even though Howard was heartbroken, he was okay interested in meeting her sister Amy…perhaps, Emily reasoned, Amy and Howard would hit it off this weekend…and if they did, it would be just enough to make Ellen jealous…


End file.
